Death

by tmb1112

Death is a Quirk that can only kill. A perfect Quirk for a villain, but what if the boy who manifested that power just wanted to be a hero? Enrolling in U.A. might not be enough when all your Quirk can do is kill people. Follow Zach Sazaki from his first day in Class A on a story that spans years, as he learns to be a hero, finds out more about his Quirk, and too much to summarize!

211. Chapter 211

Disclaimer: I don't own Boku no Hero Academia

Chapter 211:

"Midoriya," Zach started as he heard the voice that said his name behind him. "What are you doing here?" He looked back down the dark alley with his eyes no longer glowing red. His eyes were well-adjusted enough to the darkness to see Midoriya's face though. His body turned more and he stared down the alley towards Midoriya, keeping from looking down himself at the things he saw his friend had noticed and kept darting his eyes to.

Midoriya felt the vibration below his feet and heard the low buzz of Zach's phone again coming from that discarded bag. His eyes shifted towards the bag this time as the phone buzzed in a silence he knew meant Zach heard it too, then his eyes looked back down the alley to Zach. He isn't picking up, Midoriya thought about asking Zach why he had not been answering. His mouth opened to mention the phone, but he stopped himself and just stared down the shadowy figure staring back towards him. Midoriya's expression shifted a few times in only seconds as he examined Zach's face. He closed his mouth, deciding against beating around the bush which did not feel right when he already knew what this was.

Midoriya could see Zach knew that he knew what this was too. Zach saw that Deku could see it too as his expression changed, and he heard it in Midoriya's steadier but darker voice that asked, "Where are you going?"

Zach glanced back towards his backpack, then to Midoriya. A thought passed through his mind of making some lame excuse, but it faded. There's no point. Zach knew there was no use in making idle conversation and gradually getting to this conversation that was bound to happen anyway, even if he attempted to lie for some back and forth first. He knows it's over. Zach looked to his right at the dark wall on that side of him, quiet for a moment, and then he responded, "You know where."

Midoriya's fists balled at his sides. His knuckles clenched in anger with his thumbs pushing down over them, his eyes narrowing towards Zach who looked him back in the eyes. The two of them stared at each other face to face, and Midoriya's arms shook as he stood there in the slightly more illuminated side of the alley. He just told me, that he's going to go join the Army of Death again. Go be a villain… In his mind flashed the grief-stricken face of his classmate, her pink hair splayed out over her tear-streaked expression. What she had shouted at him had stuck, and his fists loosened with his eyebrows raising up instead in a softer and more hurt way at the response he could not feel any more anger towards.

I failed Zach. We all have. He's tried his very hardest to get back into our society, to do things by the rules, and to still help and do good while he's doing that. He's tried for months, with no help, and with people like me constantly working against him and trying to undermine his efforts. Because of his plans that I was so sure of, for so long. Midoriya eased his head back as Zach stood there fully facing him and without any sign of emotion in his expression. Even before tonight a piece of me still believed you had some master plan for coming back here. The way you acted, even letting us know that you were Death could've been part of the plan for the start.

"You don't have to do that," Midoriya whispered in response, making Zach's eyebrows raise the tiniest amount as he was surprised. He did not expect Midoriya to say that, but that small amount of surprise did little as he just returned to the same expression in knowledge that Midoriya had no idea what he was talking about. Midoriya winced at that look on Zach's face so cold and expressionless, and he forced down the feeling of doubt he had rising within him because of Zach's scarred, dark look. I was the paranoid one this time. I know Zach. I finally know that I know him, because if I had gotten here a few seconds later… Zach would have disappeared.

Midoriya felt he knew that with assurance. Zach's response to his question was confirmation, but the sight around him alone was all he needed for that. He's been in this alley for a while. There's a dry spot where he was sitting- he never had a new place. She was right about everything. "The photo you got from the mall is in a puddle," Midoriya mentioned. "Were you going to leave it?" He asked it in search of some reaction on Zach's face that was unresponsive to the question.

Zach did not react emotionally. He did not even look at the photo Midoriya was talking about that he had already spent too long looking at in the past few minutes, and hours. "What do you want?" Zach just asked Deku. His eyes remained cold and his tone stayed the same as he continued, "Did you come for a fight? Because… I'm done fighting you. Midoriya," Zach muttered his name at the end of that, his expression looking even darker.

He bowed his head an inch which was enough for his bangs to shadow over his eyes. "This works out for the best," Zach told his former classmate, and Midoriya flinched at the statement that sounded so grimly resolute. "You know it's true, Deku." Zach rose his eyes and stared through his bangs towards the face of his hero friend. You can hear it. You can see it in me. I am, devoid of light. The last of it is gone. I need to go. I said he knows where, so they'll assume I'm back with Death. Or Death myself. It's a good ending. The best way for a ghost to disappear, is just to fade quietly away. Won't be much of a scene. Too much mystery around me already. Was I killed? Did I run? Am I dead, alive, between the two… that's actually probably closest to the truth.

He's barely keeping up the disguise for me, Midoriya could see through it. Zach was hardly masking his true face at all. The attempt was weak, and Midoriya could hear in Zach's voice a deeper apathetic darkness regarding what he was saying that straight terrified him. Midoriya's expression hardened though despite hearing that menacing tone sounding so ominous when it came from Zach. I can't let him leave. The thought he had was too serious and not focused enough solely on Zach, which he knew even though he was determined not to let Zach go for his own sake too. Guilt rushed him again as he knew he was not just thinking of Zach though, I let him go in the courthouse. I was too weak to do anything at VTS. Too slow, too hesitant, and too late. This time though, I wasn't too late. It won't be like the forest. I won't lose Zach after getting so close. This time. For the first time.

I'm going to save you.

Midoriya felt a weight in his pocket he was reminded of, and he took a step closer to Zach. In a steady but raised voice he denied down to his old classmate, "I don't know. You're wrong, nothing's working out for the best right now. I know things are tough, but you can't give up." Zach ground his teeth with his lips curling into a deep frown, his head bowing farther with the anger shown clearly on his face. "You haven't had a place to stay recently, have you?"

"Mina's a good friend," Zach said. She forced my hand though. "And more observant, smarter than people give her credit for." The second the texts started pouring in, I knew she must have called the schools. It was better this way though. Any longer would have just prolonged the inevitable. Journalists have to be trying to get that first scoop on where I'm going before the rest figure it out. They'll call all the different schools, realize that I did apply everywhere, and figure out for themselves that I've got nowhere to go. "She'll be a great hero-"

"She'll never recover from this," Midoriya countered darkly right back. His voice was firm and he glared harder as Zach rose his eyes to his old classmate's. Midoriya's expression faltered though at the agony that flashed for a second on Zach's face before replacing with an emotionless look again.

"She will," Zach repeated. What did she say- The tone in Midoriya's voice and how assured the curly-haired boy sounded made Zach imagine some kind of look on Mina's face. He forced that away though at the pain that filled him, It doesn't matter. His eyes narrowed back towards Midoriya who had had a judgmental look there for a moment before easing it to stare at him in a more pitying way instead. "It's not anyone's fault, Midoriya. I know you'd want to blame yourself at this point, but there's nothing you can do to help me."

"That's not…"

"Nowhere is safe when I'm around. Not even hero schools. Heroes are supposed to protect people, and my very existence puts all those around me in danger." Zach said these things as a matter of fact, and he shook his head in a single dark motion while giving Midoriya a cold state. "Which inherently means I cannot be a hero. So it's time for me to leave-"

"You can't-"

"I can, and I've decided," Zach countered right back as Midoriya started to argue. "No one can stop me from going. There's nothing keeping me here. No path forward, anymore. She told you about the schools I applied to?" Zach asked it and Midoriya's eyes widened and shook as he thought he had information about Zach that Zach did not know he had. Zach had figured out everything he knew though based off his expressions, based off assumptions he had made, and the ability to figure all of this out unnerved and stunned Midoriya. "Not one is willing to have me. Nowhere in this country is safe as long as I'm here, but the country itself is not safe either."

"Villains know I'm in Japan. That's too small an area to hide from them." His explanation sounded crazy, and yet to Midoriya the paranoia sounded all too rational at the sight of Zach's ripped-up neck and face.

"You don't have to run," Midoriya started back. His voice started quiet but he rose it louder and called down to Zach, "You can't. Eziano may have stepped up his attacks, but that doesn't mean-"

"Nowhere is safe, as long as I'm here. Everyone knows it, and no one's willing to accept the risk. I have no choices. No options. Nothing… It's time for me to go." Zach shook his head while staring into Midoriya's denying eyes, and then he let out a sigh. The sigh was the most terrifying sigh to Midoriya who stared with huge eyes at Zach's bowed head. He could not imagine what was going through Zach's head, but he heard that sigh and froze up with sweat forming on both sides of his face.

Zach sighed almost as if he had just accepted what Midoriya thought deep inside. Like Zach thought he had to accept that he was going to have to deal with Midoriya here, when that 'you can't' left Midoriya's mouth and implied that Midoriya was not going to let him leave. The sigh scared Midoriya because it sounded like Zach was willing to fight him, yet it came out so calmly and like he was more tired than getting ready for a fight. Even though he just said he wouldn't fight me. He's exhausted. Tired of this already, but also accepting, because despite being tired… He is going to deal with it. With me. With whatever's next too.

"That, might not be true," Midoriya said though. He countered Zach's replies. He shook his head and his right hand lowered down to his sweatshirt's pocket. He was wearing this dark green hoodie while in the common room with the others, and it said his hero name in white bubble letters across the middle of his chest. Deku put his hand in his pocket and he pulled out his phone that Zach darted his eyes to quicker now and then back up at Midoriya's face faster than he had been reacting so far.

Tricky. Didn't think Midoriya had it in him. He came up with a plan for this? Zach's eyes were red as they darted from Midoriya's steady eyes back down to that phone Midoriya held up in a way that made it illuminate considering he was already in the middle of a call. He does think far ahead though. He made a plan. He knew, just coming out here couldn't do anything. Not that his call is going to…

Please, say something, Midoriya darted his eyes to his phone as he saw little change in Zach's expression other than his eyes going red. He had tapped the speaker button on his phone while lifting it in front of him, and Zach's red eyes focused on the top of the illuminated screen which had the name of who Midoriya had called on it. The one who had been listening in from before Midoriya even landed, as Midoriya knew that if he found Zach he would never have the chance to make the call during their talk.

"Sazaki."

"Mr. Principal," Zach replied. Midoriya couldn't have planned this out beforehand. There is little planning that has gone into this. For any of them. Or for me. No one knows what's happening here. He heard all of that though. Midoriya was implying something Nezu can't-

"I would like to offer…"

Don't. Zach's red eyes narrowed, his fists balling furiously at his sides before Nezu had finished his sentence.

"…you a place back at U.A."

"Zach, U.A. is safe," Midoriya continued right after Nezu finished, his lack of hesitation making the mouse-man on the other side guess how poorly Sazaki responded to his offer.

Nezu sat alone in his office with his phone out in front of him. His eyes rose from his phone though and to a chair in front of his desk where he recalled a muscular woman in a red costume sitting earlier that day. It had been over a year since she had been a member of his faculty, but due to the circumstances of her withdrawal from Japan and how she had not gone through proper protocols, getting Mother Russia back to U.A. had been a hassle. He was happy to finally have her back with them, though the conversation the two of them had had after classes alone earlier had him feeling restless again as he heard the tone of Sazaki's voice on the other side of the line.

After all he has done, he sounds defeated, Nezu hesitated though at his own thoughts. Could that be his, plan? In order to get back here… he could have predicted Midoriya's strategy. He and Raijin, the two of them have made it past me before. But… In Nezu's head he saw as Mother Russia started talking about the Army of Death without provocation.

Something had been bothering her since she arrived at U.A., and Nezu had not seen what it was until the middle of their conversation as he made a joke about being a mouse and not a man due to something she said. That led to her bringing up a testing facility on polar bears in Siberia, and Death's brutal slaughter of all the tortured subjects that wanted nothing but death… Except for one. He revived the one creature intelligent enough to regret, and curse its life as it died. Gave it a second chance. She still didn't know why he did it. Or how, he could make that decision in the middle of a fight like that. Sazaki is Death. Death's actions were so far removed from those of a hero or villain. What I know however, is that the kind of decisions he made out there weighed heavily on him and crushed him every day. That tone in his voice isn't of defeat. No. It is a dread, knowing what he plans to go back to. The kind of life he would have to live outside of society.

"I told you before that you could not return to U.A., but since you have nowhere to go-"

"That's not something to concern yourself with," Zach cut-in before Nezu could finish. "I do have somewhere, and I'm actually about to leave."

Nezu closed his mouth and his eyes closed too. He had to stop his offer at what Sazaki said right there in such a calm and decided tone. He is telling me that he is going back to the Army of Death. I know that. The mouse-dog-bear man sighed and he opened his eyes again to stare at his phone in a thoughtful way. What should I do? Can I continue the offer now, knowing that Sazaki is so easy to revert to breaking the rules? "Are, you going to disappear forever?" Nezu questioned.

Midoriya spun to the phone he held out, then back to Zach in front of him who did not react to the question like he did. Zach hesitated, then he just said, "I am." Midoriya tilted his head back with his face scrunching up, and Zach continued while looking softly back into Midoriya's eyes, "I won't come back again just to make things worse, as I know I have already this time. I'm sorry, Midoriya," Zach said to the curly-haired teen in front of him. Midoriya stared back in a crushed way as he saw Zach's expression reverting to the way it had looked only once before: right at the end of the Lifebringer Incident. When Zach had said 'goodbye.'

On the other end of the phone back at U.A., Nezu's eyes shook as he stared at his phone screen. He suddenly remembered a conversation he had once had with All Might. "Sazaki has cooperated fully yet would not confirm anything on his injuries. The judges accepted and the matter is to be kept private. We will give a press conference as soon as the media catches wind to confirm his return, but say nothing of his time with the villains… It was my failure as a principal that allowed this to happen. He has been left in our care in order for us to educate and protect him as he is made into a hero who can protect himself and fight the villains. In the next two years, I wish to fix my failure. Will you help me?"

"What if that were not your only option though?" Nezu wondered. Zach looked towards the phone again as he heard his old principal's voice coming out of it with a different emotion than he believed he had ever heard come from Principal Nezu before. "You made this decision without knowing that you had an alternative, correct? Well I take back what I said before-"

"It was never just because of our call after I got out of Tartaros," Zach countered in a low voice with a slight shake of his head. His teeth grit though as he heard that desperation in Nezu's voice to get him back, not very clear in his tone yet clear to Zach who could hear it in how quickly Nezu was speaking and countering him here.

"There are still-"

"Why would you let me?" Zach snapped, his voice dark and his eyes glaring harsher at the phone. "Knowing where I plan on running to right now?" Or where the two of you think I'm going. Zach's eyes stayed narrowed though shifted to glare Midoriya's way too then back at Nezu's name on Midoriya's phone.

"Because you have one more month," Nezu answered. Zach frowned deeper as the hero on the other side continued, "When that month is over you will have options. You will have choices to make," Midoriya's eyes widened and darted back to his phone as he had been examining Zach's dark face closely trying to see a sign of him changing his mind. Nezu continued in a lower voice, "When that time comes I do hope you would make the right choice, and stay here as a hero who people can look up to. As it stands now though you do not have that choice in front of you. And without options, I know you pick whatever you see can working out for the best."

Zach started shaking his head, but he froze as Nezu suddenly stated, "It was my greatest shame as principal to allow what happened to you at the hands of the League of Villains." Zach rose his gaze up and he stared at the speaker of the glowing phone he heard his principal's voice coming from. "That was what I believed when you returned the first time," Nezu continued in a quieter voice. "I promised myself, I would look after you from then on until your graduation. Instead I stood by and watched, oblivious, as one of the League's core members continued to torment you and set up the most horrible betrayal-"

"I forgive you for that," Zach said.

He spoke up suddenly and with something that stunned Nezu into freezing as much as it made Midoriya's eyes open huge at the kind of response Zach had. Zach would usually tell someone not to worry about it, or that it was not their fault, or treat it as nothing. Zach just said in a serious tone at the silent phone though, "Whatever your miscalculations, they are not your fault for not being smart enough. Kaminari was just smarter," Zach said. Give the credit where it's due. "He was more cruel than one in the light could imagine," Zach explained in a soft but intense voice to show he meant each word of it. "And I determined how I responded to his betrayal, knowing I could never return."

I never even wanted to go back, Zach reminded himself. The tips of his black hair were getting blacker than the air around him. Darkness covered his hair and extended it longer and wavier behind his head. At the same time, black tendrils wisped out around his forehead and sides of his head at the same level. A cloth-like black ribbon wrapped tightly around Zach's forehead with twin tails waving around behind his head. I knew U.A. was too far away. It always has been.

"This country still needs you," Nezu continued rapidly, telling himself to speak fast as he knew how quickly Sazaki could think and respond. "The country needs Lifebringer, more now than ever. The message you send to people is vital in today's tumultuous times…"

Midoriya's breathing got heavier just on the other side of the line, and Nezu's tiny fists curled over his desk as he heard the boy's breath hitch. Midoriya's eyes darted down to Zach's right side where a pair of black swords just formed attached to his waist as if on some kind of invisible belt. And then his eyes snapped to Zach's left hand at his side that curled open the smallest amount to allow the black hilt to form inside his grip, and the katana's blade to start extending out from it. "Don't, Zach," Midoriya started over Nezu's voice.

He can't let me leave. Zach's red eyes locked steady onto Midoriya's. This isn't an attempt to help me. They need to stop me. They can't have me out there without oversight. They can't let me off their leash. Black spiderwebs shot in from the sides of Zach's face over his skin, and the hair on top of his head spiked up and waved around more as if there was a wind over him even though the alley was eerily calm and quiet. He's holding himself back even now. All he's wanted is to fight me from the beginning. And now he has to uphold the guise of being forced into it. They'd never just let me go. Prison's not a place.

The sword coming out of Zach's left hand extended farther, and Zach glared at Midoriya who had stepped towards him down the alley and who was now looking at the tip of the sword that stopped extending only two feet from his body. Midoriya stared at the blade with an unsettled feeling swirling in his chest, but looking up he did not feel threatened by Zach's threatening look. "You won't hurt me," Midoriya started. He shook his head at his old classmate who just grit his teeth in anger and then ground them at that kind of response to what he was doing.

"You've been looking for this fight from day one," Zach's voice came out darker, deeper, his regular voice overlapping it and making the whole thing sound scratchy and off.

"I've been dreading it!" Midoriya countered and even took a step forward towards Zach. He got over half the distance of the gap closer to the tip of the blade held out in front of him, but Zach's dark sword did not waver to Midoriya's movement. Midoriya grit his teeth as Zach did not even flinch to him doing that, as he hoped Zach would. Yet seeing that only made him feel all the more desperate, "You have to come back to U.A., Zach! You have to. Everyone you need is there. And you can still be a hero!"

"I know you won't let me leave," Zach replied under his breath, his voice still dark and deep, though not as scratchy as a moment ago as it came out somehow soft to the teen standing six feet in front of him. Zach stared into Midoriya's eyes with his glowing red ones, and he warned, "And when you chase me and try to stop me, I will fight-"

"I won't have to chase you!" Midoriya snapped back and interrupted Zach. "Because I'm going to convince you to stay," Midoriya continued, and he stepped forward in a steady movement without hesitation and looking like as big a step as he took the last time.

Zach's red eyes shot wider and his sword shrank a foot. His teeth just bared harder though as Midoriya stopped where the tip of his blade had just been. There was a moment of quiet between the two, as Midoriya had not been knocked unconscious by the sword he almost just stepped into, even though neither was positive that that was going to the result of Midoriya's last step. Nezu's voice spoke up in that silence between the two, "It's not just about your public figure." Zach kept his eyes locked on Midoriya's even as Nezu spoke this time. Nezu's voice continued through the air and filled the ears of the boys locking eyes with one another, "What the public thinks of you, it's not just a positive or negative. It's the public's view of you and everything you've done, even if most of what they think may be myth and legend, stories, or truths maybe they can't believe."

Midoriya thought for a moment that Zach's expression would shift in an accusatory way thinking that he had told Nezu something, but Zach did not react. Zach just knew Principal Nezu's mind well enough to understand why he would say something like that whether or not any of his friends had told him truths he had shared with them. "You are bigger than one man now," Nezu continued. "And you know that, and you have taken that very seriously for a long time. I wish for you to think about what it is you came back here to do," Nezu requested of the student he was speaking to. "And whether or not you have truly made things worse, or if they are simply unfinished?"

The real reason I came back here, Zach reminded himself. I could have gone anywhere to leave Darling, but why did I come here? All those goals weren't as important as I made them out to be. I just needed those reasons to survive. To keep myself occupied. My mind is clear now though. I can see, so I know that I clearly can't go back to U.A. No one would accept me there. This talk means nothing. Nezu and Midoriya aren't the only ones at U.A.

"Some things would be finished," Zach countered the principal with a shake of his head shrouded in Death. "Should I leave now, what happened this morning will have greatest impact."

Midoriya's eyes widened and he thought back on the video of the convenience store but also of Ashido's explanation of what he was doing. If he meant to scare villains, then Zach disappearing after that would be more effective than anything! They'd be absolutely terrified! Everyone would be! So for villains- "And so you'll use that as an excuse to run away?!" Midoriya snapped, his breathing ragged but the shout coming out faster than he could even think about it. Zach's red eyes narrowed at him, but Midoriya leaned his head over the top of the black sword that wavered this time at his movements, and he scolded, "You don't need to do things like that. That isn't the only way you can help, and I know being like that is hard for you."

"Haven't we had this conversation?" Zach asked, his head tilting back and his red eyes flaring as he snarled, "I'm just naturally scary."

"No, you're not!" Midoriya snapped right back while ignoring that whole movement that he felt no intimidation over seeing. It was not the reaction Zach had expected or wanted, making him grind his teeth again as Midoriya just continued at him in a knowing voice, "You don't like when people look at you afraid. You hate it, when people are that afraid of you. And you can still become a hero, and get looked at like a hero, and save people as a hero who doesn't have to scare everyone-"

"I don't hate it-"

"Taking off your helmet?" Midoriya asked, and Zach's body tensed up with his eyes snapping open wide and losing most of the red glow in them. "You wanted to save that girl, right? At the War Boys Incident?"

"I took it off, to help her," Zach argued, shaking his head as he had been shaken for a moment there by what Midoriya dragged up. "Not because I hated how it felt to be looked at, like that."

"So it didn't hurt you?" Midoriya asked, and Zach stayed quiet instead of responding as Midoriya called him out on not really countering what he was saying here. "You did it to help her, but seeing that look on an innocent girl's face directed at you, when you were trying to save her… I've never had to feel that, but just imagining getting looked at- in the way I see people look at you," Midoriya's face scrunched up, and Zach pulled his own head back at the water in the bottom of Midoriya's eyes.

Zach lost the darkness surrounding his body as his threatening actions were doing nothing to dissuade Midoriya from his attempts or get him to attack. He shook his head though with his teeth grinding again as Midoriya tried to step closer, and he got his former classmate to stop from approaching any closer. Why am I here? Zach closed his eyes when his head shook to the right one time, and he stopped and bowed his head down with his thoughts bashing against each other in his mind. What's the reason? Why would I leave though? I can't just forget the reason because things aren't going well for me. And why would I deny them? What's the reason? It's because… because… I'm afraid.

Of everything I've done. Out of all the battles and wars, going back to U.A. and facing everyone I left behind in such a bad way is scariest. If just another couple of months had passed, we never would have all been together again. Yet if I would have to return and live with them, I'd have to make the amends I'm so afraid to keep trying- or to start trying for- And I don't even have time! Less than I thought Kotsumura and Reika could- and I think I can get everything in within a month?! I destroyed everything!

"Zach don't!"

"STOP!"

"Please! Don't do it!"

"Just knock him out!"

"Get the barrier down!"

"Zach!"

"Zach!"

"ZACH!"

"No one would accept me back there," Zach said darkly, his eyes raising up and locking back on Midoriya's. "Just because you came-"

"No one will be against it," Midoriya said back. Zach stopped with his mouth open and his head just pulled back more with a confused and pained expression. Midoriya knew what that was for though as he thought about how the common room had looked before Ashido came back in earlier. "You haven't fixed things with everyone yet," he paused, and Zach looked at his friend's face closer with widening eyes as Midoriya's expression shifted and Zach knew that Midoriya was talking about himself too. "And so a lot of them will still have a hard time accepting you, and you're going to struggle to deal with them too, but you have to try again." Midoriya said it with his face scrunching up too and him shaking his head that they had come to this point once again. "As hard as you tried before, only now do you actually have a chance to live with them and study, train, and fight with them- with us in close quarters."

"It's the only way you can really make an effort-"

"I did try," Zach whispered. His eyes dropped down from Midoriya and he said under his breath, "Even without those things… I tried, Midoriya. I really…"

The resolve from earlier was gone in Zach's voice, as he knew Midoriya had a point. Yet in his mind now all he could remember were the looks of unfamiliarity from the joint training forest. Former classmates who just watched him with skepticism, doubtful looks to every word out of his mouth. Like I was a stranger, Zach saw some of those looks directed at him from old classmates; looks that were the same as how some of the Shiketsu students had looked at him on his first day in their class. Like I was planning something that had nothing to do with their training, and that every word out of my mouth was fake. I don't think I can deal with that every day, from everyone around me, again… Zach's shoulders slouched and his breath gasped out as he barely finished that exhausting thought.

His feet felt dead. How he was still holding up his own body suddenly amazed him. There was no way to react to the amazement though, as he was too exhausted to make a face. His panting came out ragged and his eyes half-closed as he felt an fatigue unlike any other slam into his body. So tired. I can't even- Zach closed his mouth, and his half-closed eyes clenched in frustration at himself. Villains won't care. You know that. Every moment thinking about… They won't! I can't just, give up either though. I can't give any room. I have to move. Have to, keep moving. Zach rose his right hand up to his forehead that he rubbed slowly back and forth. He pushed his own forehead up and took in a deep breath while looking at the teen in front of him.

"You're right." I'll have to fix the things I gave up on. Things I decided were not important anymore. "I was only leaving, because I couldn't stay-"

"Once you return to U.A., Sazaki," Nezu started. Midoriya's eyes were still wide and his mouth was in the middle of lifting into a smile, which was why Nezu's suddenly serious voice surprised him and made him spin to his phone anxiously. "You will not be permitted to leave until graduation." Zach rose his right eyebrow but said nothing for the moment, and Nezu continued, "It will be my decision. Due to the transfer, your workload will be too much on its own. I expect you to complete it, however."

Zach started taking in deep breaths through his nose and letting them out slowly from his mouth. He's helping. Just let him help, don't argue with anything. Cutting down my workload means I can put more focus on each thing. He knows. He's smart. I should just listen. Follow his plan. Zach nodded his head, and he responded, "I understand."

"I need you to," Nezu said after hearing Zach say that. "Because I am taking a risk here, Sazaki. You know it as well as I do. And so I will not make you promise anything to me, when we both know that any promise you make would be difficult for either of us to believe. I have to tell you this though, in the absence of any assurances from you:" Nezu paused and then lowered his voice and finished to his new and former student, "If you break the rules I set before you, there are no second chances this time." Zach stared at the floor between him and Midoriya without reacting to the principal's statement. "You must complete the term without incident. One wrong move and I will regretfully expel you just as Memuria was forced to. I need to know that you understand this."

"I do," Zach lifted his head. He said it firmly and locked his eyes back on Midoriya's again. "I know, this is my final chance," Zach said, and this time Midoriya could see Zach was speaking to him as much as to the principal.

---

In the dorm building for Class 3-A of U.A. High School, around half of the class sat around the common room well after midnight as they awaited news from either of their two classmates who had made it off campus. Neither Midoriya nor Yaoyorozu had checked back in with anyone yet, however, and so they were in the dark as to what was going on or if anything came from what Ashido told them earlier.

Ashido herself had passed out and been taken up to her room by Uraraka and Hagakure, only one of which came back down herself. Hagakure had remained upstairs, and Ojiro had gone up himself as well afterwards. Bakugo left for his own room and Todoroki did the same not long after, then Jirou followed suit followed by Aoyama and Asui who each returned to their own rooms without making a scene about it.

The others who remained stayed rather quiet as they waited for news. Mostly they just reflected on what Ashido had yelled at them while darting occasional glances towards the door and wondering if they should perhaps try to get a pass off campus again. Kirishima's pacing was getting on Tokoyami's nerves the 300th time he was going back and forth, but the dark teen with a beak did not have a chance to snap at him as the door to the dorm opened inwards.

This is awkward- no. No this is just, just wrong, Zach stared towards nine of his classmates who all stared back at him without moving as they watched him enter the dorm. He was a scar-faced, muscular teen, at six feet two inches tall, wearing all black with a heavy backpack on over his black sweatshirt. His clothes looked semi-damp, like his backpack, and his appearance was scraggly and gave off an aura of 'just-came-off-the-streets' feeling. Zach looked at them though and he gave a nod in their direction before turning towards the stairs and walking that way.

Midoriya stepped in after Zach and turned in surprise as Zach just started right for the staircase. His eyes lowered down to the floor after tracking Zach away for a moment, then he turned and looked back the other way to the rest of the class. Midoriya took off his shoes and closed the door before walking towards the other students who were still stunned by the way Zach just entered and walked right into the stairwell without more than a nod to acknowledge their presence there waiting for him. "Midoriya, you really found him," Kirishima said, sounding impressed even though his arms just crossed over his chest in annoyance at what just happened.

"He was still here after all," Sato muttered.

Uraraka sighed out a breath of relief as Deku nodded. Mina had me so worried.

Sero leaned his head around and looked towards the stairs where Zach went to without coming over to talk to them first. What was up with that? He didn't even make eye contact with me or…

"He came back here," Shoji began quietly. "I didn't think he would."

"Yeah," Kirishima agreed, though he grunted it more than Shoji was just stating his thoughts aloud. "Ashido was overreacting after all-"

"No," Midoriya whispered, his head shaking side to side softly as he interrupted Kirishima. His voice came out for the first time since they saw him, and they heard a sad tone in it that made Kirishima flinch to hear and dart his eyes back towards the stairs. Midoriya turned his head partially to the side too though and he whispered to his classmates, "Ashido, was right about everything. If I had gotten there a minute later… A few seconds later, even," Midoriya paused for a second and his head bowed as just thinking about what could have been had him horrified at how close he had been to failure once again. And it wasn't even me! If not for Ashido- and without Principal Nezu's help I couldn't have done anything!

Midoriya finished in a low whisper to the others behind him who stared at his back in shock, "He would have been gone."

On the fifth floor of the dorm, Zach stood outside of a room staring at a closed door he faintly recognized. His right hand hesitated in front of the doorknob. The boy turned his head to the left and looked down the hallway to see if anyone was going to come stop him. His head turned a bit more and he looked straight back to the girl's side of the hall where he could see Yaoyorozu's door too, but no one was emerging from it. No one stopped me from walking up here. Thought Bakugo would be waiting, or something. Maybe there's someone inside.

Zach opened the door and stepped into the doorway. He stared into the dark room and did not bother to turn on the light. His eyes were adjusted enough that even when he closed the door the light from outside his window was enough. The blinds were open in his window frame filling his room with the light of Musutafu at night and a clear sky above. Zach stood alone in a room still furnished despite no one having lived in it for years. I was sixteen last time I stood in here. I don't even, remember. Zach stared to his desk, then to his made bed, over to his dresser. They must have searched my room, right? Or, or did they all know that I would never have left clues to my whereabouts after the way I left them? Or- or why did they leave it like this? Why is my room so… pristine? Untouched?

Zach stepped towards his dresser and ran his right hand over the top of it. He lifted his hand and looked at the dust on his palm and fingertips, then he brushed off his glove using his fake left hand. Didn't have this last time I was in here, Zach stared at his hand as he lowered it. He slid his backpack off his shoulders and dropped it to the floor, and he looked around a bedroom that appeared just as he had left it. Even though it looks the same, Zach's lips curled down more at the corners. He recalled the looks of those downstairs who could not come up with anything to say when they saw him enter. Not like I could either, he told himself darkly. We're strangers. I'm not meant to be here, and they know it…

He reached down from the top of his dresser and opened one of the drawers. None of the clothes will fit- Zach's thoughts cut off as he saw something sitting on top of the clothes in his top drawer. The fact that his classmates and faculty had left this room like this had him surprised, but stunning him frozen was what he saw sitting on top of his clothes. I, left this here, Zach remembered as he reached into the drawer and picked up the small piece of paper sitting on top of his clothes.

Zach lifted up the receipt he found in his drawer. He rose it up in front of his face, and he felt the muscle memory of doing the exact same thing in the same place once before but several inches shorter. He remembered picking it up off the floor while cleaning his room after he had smashed it apart. I decided not to bring it with me, Zach thought as he stared at the receipt that told him his meal was free, that 'Lifebringer eats free.' I abandoned Zach Sazaki. Things that meant a lot to him… I remember a time where seeing that would have warmed my heart. His heart. I don't even know the person who received that receipt anymore. He may have been an anti-hero, getting an alibi in Kyoto, but he isn't me.

He rose his head and glared around the small box of a room. I don't recognize this room, even though it should feel like home. My room in the Cloak was bigger. It was never anything more than a place to sleep though. The Cloak 2.0 I barely ever slept on too… My room at the apartment felt like something, but it was Norita who made that place feel anything like a home. Zach walked over to his desk and he pulled out his chair, though he stopped and stared at the top of his desk as he remembered the last things he had written on it. His eyes clenched shut, and he shook his head around while glancing back towards his door leading to the rest of the dorm.

The people here are strange. They aren't who I remember. Who I came back to help… I didn't know the people I was coming here for. I didn't know anything about the new them, and they don't know the new me… Zach sighed and he sat down in the chair he had still been gripping the back of. He shook his head some more while staring down at his hands he held palms-up on his lap, I doubt I even know the new me. Those looks they gave me though, Zach thought back on how the group of them looked his way with one collective look of unknowing. Not one of them knew what to say to him. Whether they were friends he had seen a dozen times since returning, or only a couple, it all felt the same as he returned to be a member of their class again. Half of them haven't even- they don't accept it. Midoriya can pretend, but he was lying. I don't belong here, Zach leaned back in his chair and stared straight up at the ceiling.

I'm being let in on obligation rather than merit. I don't deserve this, Zach sighed and blew air out his mouth while lifting his left hand up above his tilted-back head. Or because Principal Nezu and Midoriya fear what I'd turn into if they weren't watching me. I'm a prisoner under their watch, his left hand opened up wide above him then curled into a fist as his lips curved down more at the corners. His eyes narrowed as he glared at that darkening fist, Soon to be revealed to everyone for what I really am, and then I'll be taken away on their terms instead of my own.

His hand lost the darkness as soon as it started spreading, and he dropped his left arm down to his side limply. He stayed leaned back in his chair but he bowed his head again to put his chin into his chest.

Downstairs, several students in their own rooms lifted their phones as a message was sent through their class's groupchat by Midoriya. 'Yaoyorozu come back to the dorm. Zach is here. Principal Nezu has offered Zach a place in Class A to finish off the term.' Midoriya hesitated himself after he had sent the message, wondering if he should go back and add the other things he had wanted to but erased every time he started writing them. Telling the others to accept Zach, or welcome him back; he could not decide and finally chose not to send anything telling the others how they should treat Zach, as he knew it would be different for each one of them.

Midoriya was still downstairs with a few classmates in the common room when he sent the message, and it was Iida who suggested it in the first place since Yaoyorozu was still out looking. Midoriya felt bad he had not sent something to her sooner, but he had not actually known that anyone else had been allowed out of school to go looking for Zach. After sending the message though, Midoriya headed back up to his floor alone, though he did pause in the stairwell and look up it before walking for his own room. I already told him everything I needed to tonight. From here on we can make things more normal. See him every day, and not just after he's already taken a dozen more hits each time. Will Eziano try again while he's here? Is the League going to move before we graduate? There's so much happening right now, but I'm glad Zach's back.

I really needed you here. I- I don't know how we're going to deal with these threats. But we can do it together.

Zach sat on his chair with his arms limp at his sides and his head bowed down into his chest. His eyes were still wide open though and he just breathed heavy breaths while thinking about all the people around him right now. I'm supposed to just get up tomorrow and walk into their classroom like nothing happened. I can still hear them screaming at me not to kill them. Not to kill those villains. I could have released them to fight alongside me. They could have all joined me and fought Kaminari together, and with Todoroki, Bakugo, and Midoriya all with me I know we would have stopped them from escaping. If I had taken down Backfire from the beginning too, even after I killed Kurogiri the others could have just joined me and helped me stop the rest… but then I wouldn't have been able to escape. Or save Snow.

Zach shook his head once. I made the right choices. Every choice that led me there- that led me everywhere I saved a life. I saved two people today. Brought two people back to life, more precisely. Maybe I saved more. I scared more. Zach's eyes closed slowly then clenched tighter once they were closed. Stop avoiding the inevitability. Tomorrow you have to face them. Everyone you've lied to constantly… and you'll have to keep lying just to stay here. You told Midoriya and Nezu you would try. I can't try without lying. Half of them know already! So I'll just be- Zach rose his right hand and he gripped his fingers into the side of his head. I'm starting over! Doing the same fucking thing all over again, and even more of them are going to find out, and I can't leave this place! No more reviving people. I won't have to die every day, so that's a small plus side. One month without constant death before… before- before what?! What comes then?! After?!

A hero license? The right to go anywhere, and save everyone? That responsibility? Zach's breathing got heavier and his left hand rose like his right already had to the other side of his head. Nothing will get better. One month here of having to face them all in this- this shitshow! And then eternal- nonstop- Ashido knows! She knows I can't- I warned her! Of course she doesn't have the answer though. No one has the answer, because it's not a question that's ever been asked.

What am I supposed to do?

BOO BOO BOO… Zach's head lifted and his hands lowered from his temples. His eyes opened a little wider but in that moment nothing less than a wave of relief slammed into him. BOO-BOO… BOOOOO BOO BOO BOO.

Zach lifted up his phone and he put it to the side of his head as he answered like he would any other call. His cellphone had not rung with its normal ringtone though. The voice that spoke over the other end was not the modulated voice he had heard the last time he was signaled with one of his own codes though. Instead he heard a very familiar voice, "Hey, Zach. It's me again. I'm alone right now. The other two here went out for drinks, actually…"

"Where?" Zach asked.

Rebel paused, but the question he was just asked was not referring to what bar Angie and Rampart had gone out to for drinks. The tone in Zach's voice told Rebel that the way he had started right there told Zach exactly what he was calling about. Rebel rose his right hand and he rubbed it on his forehead with a dark and hesitant look covering his face. "The coordinates are 40.7236N by 128.6012E. Hey," Rebel continued quickly. He had heard something in that single word questioned back to him in English, and he continued strongly to the boy over the line with him, "Let me call the others. I can have him meet you there-"

"It's too risky," Zach replied while opening up a map on his phone. "They'll scatter, and I'll never have another chance at this. It has to be me alone." Zach said it and he lowered his voice at the final part. "You know that, and it's why you called me instead of just relaying it on to your boss."

"No one's my boss," Rebel scoffed back. "I'm my own boss," he continued, his voice flat but his eyes sad as he stared at the computer screens in front of him. Which is why I make my decisions, like calling you even though I was already ordered to call Gentle right away if I ever picked up a response. "It was a code meant for me I found deep in the web," Rebel explained in a low voice. "In a sudden thread that drew my attention. A code only I could break, with coordinates and a message saying they were meant only for Zach Sazaki. Guess they knew you would be the one to get it-"

"Thank you," Zach said. "Rebel." Zach smiled softly and stood up from the chair in his room. He turned towards his window. "Keep being your own boss. You've always been good at bossing people around."

"Haha, ha," Rebel laughed at his computer, a few real laughs with his head tilting back for a moment. Then he shook his head and a more serious look came to his face as he heard a different tone in Zach's voice there arising. "There's only one person I'd ever consider following besides myself," Rebel said over the line.

Zach opened up his window in his old bedroom, his eyes flaring red and his entire body wrapped in darkness. Black wings were ripping violently out of his back and growing larger as he climbed up onto the windowsill. His teeth bared and his expression underneath the veil of Death turned Deathly intense. His shoulders shrugged and cracked as he leaned his head forward and dug the claws under his feet into his windowsill. The call between him and Rebel ended, and Zach's phone hit the top of his desk and bounced off of it once. Then a gust of wind blew it backwards off the desk onto the floor of Zach Sazaki's room as a dark missile shot away from U.A. at three hundred miles per hour.

On the second floor of Class A's dorm, Midoriya snapped up from his bed while picking up his phone that suddenly rang in his hands. "Principal Nezu?"

"Midoriya! Get to Sazaki's room now!" Nezu ordered his student who shot up more to his feet and rushed at his doorway with some Full Cowling going through his body.

Wind rushed by Midoriya's sides as he shot into the stairwell and up to the fifth floor without passing anyone. He shot down the fifth floor's hallway to Zach's door, and he opened it without hesitating to enter an empty bedroom. "No," Midoriya whispered. Was it all fake?! He pretended to accept just so we wouldn't fight- because he thought if he tried to leave otherwise I would have fought him! NO! After just saying how he understood that leaving would mean he could never come back?! It was all a lie- AGAIN?! "He left?" Midoriya gasped, staring at the open window ahead of him. Zach's backpack sat on the floor to his right, and his phone lay face-down on the ground on Midoriya's left. His legs felt weak and his desperate look out the window did not show him anyone out there he could see and give chase to. Wait- how did the principal know?

"He is gone already then, as I feared," Nezu whispered, though Midoriya had brought his phone back up to his ear quickly having realized something himself.

"How did you know he left?" Midoriya asked.

"I intercepted a message entering our school's signal zone. All such signals are now tracked and recorded by the school without the knowledge of most everyone at U.A., and I myself do not listen to these messages but it is a safety measure I have installed. Midoriya, close the door behind you and listen. This is the call I just caught and started listening to before I called you," Nezu stopped for a moment and he pressed Play on a recording in front of him that now had an end time to it unlike when he first got the notification of the strange call.

Nezu and Midoriya listened together to the call from start to finish. Both sides of the line were recorded on it, and Midoriya's eye shot open huge at the sound of the coordinates the low voice on the other side of the line relayed to Zach. "Rebel," Nezu whispered as he heard Zach say the name, without caring that he would be associated with the person should he have been overheard or recorded.

Midoriya stared outside the open window in shock. Those coordinates. I know who left that coded message.

"I told Sazaki what leaving would mean," Nezu began, and Midoriya's eyes opened wider with his breath hitching at the principal's words. "But he's gone anyway, because this is something he cannot let go." Midoriya's heart raced as the principal was not saying what he just thought the mouse-man was starting to. "The coordinates are the answer to his challenge," Nezu said with his voice getting much lower. "And I am certain that your friend knows he is walking into a trap."

Midoriya's fists clenched and Nezu's voice continued into his ear, "A trap set by the most powerful man in the world, and yet right now he's going to do something foolhardy, something reckless." Nezu paused and his teeth ground like Midoriya's were starting to. "Go save him, Deku."

"I was going to anyway," Midoriya replied right back in a firm voice, while opening up his phone and checking where those coordinates were himself.

"This will be the most dangerous thing you have ever done. However, Sazaki did not sound like he plans on surviving this, and considering I see that his phone is still located in that room and he knows he can't come back there, he does not plan on returning to U.A. even if he should survive. Deku, you heard that tone in Sazaki's voice." Midoriya nodded and made an affirmative noise while jumping up onto Zach's desk, stepping out on the windowsill scratched by talon marks. He bent his legs and thought, Twenty percent. He shot up into the sky, a huge gust of wind sliding Zach's desk backwards behind him. And- NINETY PERCENT! Midoriya's body was not going to hold him back as he screamed it into his head, and he kicked his legs backwards after soaring high in the sky already.

I saw how beaten down Zach was by the world, Midoriya grit his teeth angrier as he heard that calm phone conversation and even the relieved tone Zach had at the end of it that this was how things were ending. Crushed by everything! But I still can't believe, that he would rush out right after coming back! Knowing he'd never be allowed back here!

"Bring Sazaki back," Nezu said as Midoriya held his phone back up against his head again. "Save Sazaki and return to U.A. with him." Nezu shook his head after saying it, then he yelled into his phone, "Sazaki would never be safe until he stops Eziano Mozcaccio! But more importantly to him, the people around him would always be in danger! And now that he was back at U.A., in a building surrounded by Class A!" Midoriya's fists tightened more and the mild pain he felt from constantly using 90% of One For All faded from thought at what Nezu was telling him. "Sazaki is breaking the rules, likely going for the kill, and yet I want you to save him! We need Lifebringer for what is coming! We cannot have him fall before the League and Raijin make their move, which I have seen for a long time now will account for Lifebringer being here!"

Midoriya's teeth grit even harder as Nezu told him that. The principal's tone was dark considering this was a reason that he needed to have Deku bring his friend back, and more-so one he needed Deku to understand too as he had never told it to any of his students yet. "And if they're accounting for Lifebringer being in the heroes' ranks, then the villains' strength will be beyond anything we can imagine. Raijin would plan for victory even if we have Sazaki on our side, so we cannot lose him here! We can't lose Sazaki, not in this fight he feels he has to go to alone in order to protect everyone around him- in order to just live!"

"Those assassins will not let him live," Midoriya said back, his tone pained as he yelled it out over the wind to his principal with a furious look covering his face. He thought about the look on Zach's face after he had flown out to Yutapu the night Zach's apartment exploded. The sheer rage and agony and frustration of his friend whose apartment was destroyed by the assassins trying to kill him every day, killing his friends and everyone close to him… "None of that matters, Principal Nezu!" Midoriya yelled out. "They won't let Zach live here! They pushed him to feel like he had to leave- to leave everything he cared about, AGAIN!" Tears splashed off the sides of Midoriya's face as he shot through the sky as fast as he could safely in knowledge that he was going to have to fight where he was going. "I will catch up to him! I will save him! And… WE'RE GOING TO STOP THEM TOO!"

Getting Zach back tonight means nothing! Midoriya screamed internally. I didn't save him, not if Zach goes off and dies right now in what he thinks is his final battle! Midoriya's face set in a fully determined way. "No matter what," Midoriya said, his voice hitting a tone Nezu had never heard from his student before and made his beady eyes shoot open huge at the intensity that made him no longer feel any urge to warn Deku to be careful. "I'm going to save Zach, and we'll bring in Eziano and his assassins… alive."

Midoriya shoved his phone into his pocket and kicked again into the direction of the coordinates he had checked. Ninety- TWO! Midoriya forced himself to put a little extra into a kick, He's ahead of me, but I am faster! I have to be able to reach him before he gets there! His headstart isn't insurmountable! Midoriya flew over the water and swung his arms behind him while kicking again, yelling out over the empty sky, "RAAAA!" I won't let you kill anyone ever again! You haven't since you returned, and as long as I can keep you from it then it's not too late! I can bring you back as many times as I need to! Midoriya kicked back behind him again, swung his arms down at his sides to give himself extra speed, and he snapped his head forward to scream, "ZAAACHHH!"

---

A/N Thanks for reading. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. And Happy New Year's everyone! Wanted to get in one final chapter before the year's end, and I don't have to head to work until 5 tonight so I knew I had the time to edit and post this one... Zach gets sent coordinates. His return to U.A. is short-lived, but Midoriya's chasing right after him... Get hyped! XD Leave a review below telling me what you thought of the chapter, and predictions/questions for what's ahead!

Logargon chapter 210 . Dec 24

HAPPY NEW YEARS, this was such a good chapter

HAPPY NEW YEARS to you too! And thanks!

diddles321 chapter 210 . Dec 25

Ch 93 and ch 210 are my favourite chapters by far. Brilliant chapter, and i cant wait for the next one.

Happy to hear that you really liked the last chapter! Hope you enjoyed the new one too!

Raven Mordrake chapter 210 . 1h ago

Did you read the last chapters of the manga where Kurogiri's true identity was discovered?Do you plan to implement it in history?

I did, and not likely. The character it would affect the most is Aizawa and he's gone in this story. Kurogiri's already dead too so the reveal wouldn't mean much, except to make Present Mic real sad.